what autopilot?

mikemcgregor

mikemcgregor

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Had a great summer catching Tuna in the Med this season. I must have spent around a total 80 hours trolling at 8 knots in my Cranchi Pelican 32 (Twin Volvo D4's 34 foot MB) and am looking to fit an autopilot to take some of the strain. I have Raymarine C80 chartplotter and Radar.
Any sugestions as to what would be the best autopilot to fit? Cheers
 
Mike,

Given that you have Volvo new D series the key is to find one that actually works with it! Lots of stories about the Autopilots electronics making engines go into safe mode. Others will be along soon but this seems to be fraught with issues on D series Volvos.

Sorry I can not be more specific, but I would ask which ones to avoid!

Paul /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
Since you already have a Raymarine system, if makes sense to go for the Raymarine Autompilot. I had one on my last boat hooked up to a C70 via Seatalk and it worked very well. You can course follow, with all the data on your plotter.

The Raymarine systems are modular, so you buy the core pack which includes the Course Computer, Rudder Position Sensor and Compass (or Gyrocompass if a 'G' pack). You then decide on your control interface and display and finally, the pump or drive type. As you have D4's you will have hydraulic steering so will require a pump.

The system I reckon that would suit you is as follows:

S1 Core Pack
ST6002 Control Unit
Type 1 Pump unit (check the spec on this, as each boat is different)

That little lot should be around £1150.00 inc VAT

I wouldn't bother with the Gyrocompass - it adds £500 and if you are just trolling I can't see you will need it.
 
The issues with the D series engines only occur where there is an interface for the engine diagnostics/data to the plotter. A stand alone plotter/radar/autopilot system will NOT affect the engine electronics. The only link is a hydraulic pump in the steering system.
 
[ QUOTE ]
S1 Core Pack
ST6002 Control Unit
Type 1 Pump unit (check the spec on this, as each boat is different)

That little lot should be around £1150.00 inc VAT


[/ QUOTE ]

I'm amazed it's so cheap. Would it be the same for my twin KAD43's? I've always wanted one.
Re the compass, my requirement would be for 100mile blasts in a straight line. Would I need a Gyro
 
Do you have Hydraulic or Cable/PA steering?

Prices Taken from www.raydirect.co.uk

With regard to the Gyro, I had Whitelighter out in all sorts of seas and the autopilot (non-Gyro) coped with everything I asked it to do. As I understand it, the Gyro makes it easier to cope with big/unusual swells, but then in a sea like that I tended to drive round it rather than plough through it on the pilot.
 
Could be either - though I suspect that yoou have the same set up I had on the bavaria with KAD43's and that was cable.

The bad nest is this makes it more expensive. You need the Linear Actuator Unit which connects to the top of your drive by way of a joining pin. The Actuator costs an eye watering £965.00 inc VAT. That is about £600.00 more than the hydraulic unit.

You can find the actuators for sale on ebay quite often, but if tempted be warned that the drive adaptor pin CANNOT be purchased from Raymarine or Volvo - so if it is missing you have to get one made.

Costs for a system for the S37 with the S1 Corepack, ST6003 Control Head and the Type 1 12v Linear Drive. Cost would be around £1750.00 /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif
 
Just to add some input regarding a gyro, I was with Raymarine earlier this year on an installers course and they had fitted a the 'Gyro' version to a couple of serious sailing boats and the guys who raced them said that when sailing fast downwind and there is always risk of a broach, but the gyro version corrected the boat far quicker than they could and it meant they could sail much more efficiently without the fear of broaching. the same applies to a motorboat when running with the waves.
Once you have had experienced the gyro there is no way back, and you can retrofit a gyro add-on to later ST 6000's
 
[ QUOTE ]
Could be either - though I suspect that yoou have the same set up I had on the bavaria with KAD43's and that was cable.


[/ QUOTE ]
Exposing my true ignorance here, but I believe I have power steering and I think I have a pump on one engine to run it...does this mean the whole system is hydraulic or is there a cable/hydraulic arrangement?
 
The easy way to tell if you have a hydraulic system is there should be a little back cap behind the steering wheel to allow you to top up the resevoir.

The system i suspect you have is a power assisted cable system. Effectively, you have steering cables form the wheel to a ram at the drives, turning pulls the cable and steers the boat. the power steering si in fact a motor on one engine which helps move the ram, making it easier for you to turn. There is nothing Hydraulic in the system and you are stuck with the mechanical actuator for the Autopilot
 
From our current experiences I'd be wary with regard to retro fitting the rate gyro. Along with new C70 and radar we had a 6002 autopilot installed earlier this year. The rate gyro has been a complete pain and hasn't worked at all well. Originally we had an external rate gyro fitted. Worked okay at displacement speeds but once on the plane in auto it will steer violently one way then the other. By manually configuring the settings (supposed to auto learn) it was possible to bring it back to some sort of control.

The external was swapped for a retro fitted internal board. This did offer some improvement but still very poor. With the rate gyro dis-connected the autopilot behaves okay but isn't perfect regardless of setting. The rate gyro also helps synch up the radar to the chart. This side of things seems to work well as there is noticable drift when not connected.

Next step is to replace it with a new computer with rate gyro built on to the motherboard. Hopefully this will be fitted next week and will be the end of out autopilot troubles.
 
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